Gionis Prosecutor Cites Phone Records : Courts: Jurors hear the opening statement in the physician’s trial in the 1988 assault against his former wife, Aissa Wayne, and her boyfriend at the time.

Standing in front of two long lists of telephone records, a prosecutor Wednesday told jurors the documents will help show that it was Dr. Thomas A. Gionis who put out the order that resulted in two “lugheads” beating up the doctor’s ex-wife, Aissa Wayne, and her then-boyfriend two years ago.

Gionis had put out the word to a private investigator, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans said, that he wanted “to teach his wife a lesson.”

Gionis, 37, and Wayne, 34, whose father was John Wayne, were involved in a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old daughter when the attack occurred on Oct. 3, 1988, at the Newport Beach estate of Roger W. Luby. Wayne’s face was smashed into a concrete garage floor several times by one of two assailants, who also used a knife to cut Luby’s Achilles’ tendon.

Gionis is charged with assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment in the attack.

Opening arguments were held Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Theodore E. Millard after the three-day selection of jurors and two alternates was completed. Evans’ opening statements were heard Wednesday, but Gionis’ attorneys will not lay out their case until next Tuesday. The judge explained that he had a conflict with another case until then.

After court Wednesday, Gionis rushed to the end of the 11th floor courthouse corridor and hugged his daughter, now 4 years old, who was waiting for him there with family and friends. Wayne has custody of the girl, but Gionis has court-reviewed visitation rights.

Gionis, a successful orthopedic surgeon who is free on bail, beamed at the little girl and held her in his arms as he waited for the elevator. He said only that his case was going well so far and that reporters should “listen to the evidence. Pay close attention.”

Evans reviewed for jurors a chart of nearly 40 telephone calls that took place among the four alleged co-conspirators in the case--Gionis, private investigator O. Dan Gal of Century City, and the two assailants, Jerrel Hintergardt of Burbank and Jeffrey K. Bouey of Simi Valley--before and after the assault.

Hintergardt, 39, who admitted that he used a knife on Luby but denied smashing Wayne’s face into the concrete, is already serving an eight-year prison sentence following his conviction at a separate trial.

Bouey, 38, who also admitted his role, is expected to plea-bargain in exchange for his testimony against Hintergardt and Gionis. Gal, 34, has also agreed to cooperate with the authorities, but he is awaiting trial and his status as a witness in the case remains unclear. He was not called by prosecutors to testify against Hintergardt.

Gal had been hired by Gionis several months before the assault to “spy” on Wayne, who had temporary custody while a permanent custody hearing was pending, prosecutor Evans told jurors.

“The defendant (Gionis) was trying to get custody of his little daughter. That was his goal,” the prosecutor said.

Evans noted that several calls took place between Gal’s car phone and Gionis’ Pomona residence and his car phone about 10 a.m. the day of the attack, shortly before the two assailants followed Wayne and Luby, 54, to a fitness center. It was after they returned that the two assailants slipped onto the Luby grounds when he used a remote control to open the gate and park his car in the garage. Evans referred to the two assailants at various times as “lugheads,” “thugs” and “dummies.”

More calls took place between Gal and Gionis immediately after the attack, the prosecutor told jurors.

Gionis’ attorney John D. Barnett has countered that the telephone calls between Gal and Gionis do not show what prosecutors want the jurors to believe they show.

While Evans repeatedly told jurors that they would hear details of the assault and the conspiracy from Bouey, he made no mention whether Gal would testify. He said only that he was not presenting all his evidence in his opening statement.

Gionis’ attorneys spent considerable time in pretrial hearings trying to persuade the judge to let them use evidence they believed would attack Gal’s credibility upon cross-examination if he does testify.

If Gal does not testify, it may be that prosecutors were unwilling to plea-bargain with him because of the seriousness of his role in the attack. Bouey was considered a secondary figure who only went along with Hintergardt, his best friend. Wayne and Luby have both testified that it was Hintergardt who led the attack.